by Morgan
When the lovers in the GTO finally broke their embrace and joined the rest of the group, everyone was gathered around Nathan’s newly acquired and moderately famous “crappy blue Chevy Nova.” It had been referred to as such in Beverly Hills Cop, but was also the same car Lilly Tomlin drove in 9 to 5. Nathan was actually dancing a jig about the twofer.
The late arrival of the disheveled couple was acknowledged with two sympathetic smirks and one cantankerous one. The group then went back to the house for drinks and discourse.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
CHRISTMAS CAME AND WENT as David wrapped the first four episodes of his new TV series, West of the Moon. He was playing a complicated young ranch hand whose motives always seemed in question. Some of the crew had worked on the show LOST and took to calling him Sawyer due to his handsome shiftiness.
His directors asked him to play some scenes honest and likable, while in other scenes, he was encouraged to ooze arrogance and make snide remarks. This was music to David’s ears. He knew that he wasn’t a diverse actor yet, and the complicated character would be a nice addition to his credits. He was excited when Nathan mentioned that his performance in Sling Shot came off as intellectual and thoughtful.
David’s new agent, Brandy Parlor, assured him that solid work was the best way to get solid work. He liked the sentiment and understood why Shaunna chose her for him. Brandy and David shared a goofy side, and neither liked to wallow in details. David frequently marveled at his abrupt change in status and tax bracket.
Thanks to the paparazzi, the world knew the constant whereabouts of Michelle and David. Any time either of them left Malibu, they were followed by unkempt ducklings with cameras. They tailed David to his studio set in Los Angeles and even down to his location shoots near San Diego. As annoying as it was to David, they were even more persistent with Michelle.
Michelle spent most of the holiday season reading new scripts in development and inquiring about directors and producers she admired. As a result, she’d been offered three separate roles, all paying her asking price and all of them offering short production schedules located right in Los Angeles. Shaunna and David were grateful for her choices. If Michelle had flown off to Tampa Bay to shoot a golf comedy called Gulf Course, or taken a part in Astoria Waits, a mother-daughter television series filmed in New York City, her absence would’ve only exposed Shaunna and David’s relationship to penetrating scrutiny.
Michelle accepted a job which began filming immediately, and the role required temporary tattoos that progressed from her arms across the top of her chest. She loved how the body art helped her get into character. Thanks to time spent with Kyle, she already knew how to ride a Harley and became a sassy and seasoned rider named Bad-Ass Beth. The director was fresh off an Oscar win for one of his gorgeously gritty movies, and she was thrilled to play a part in his newest project.
She wore her Hollywood ink home most days and showered there unless she’d been instructed by the makeup artist to press shiny strips of stencil paper to her skin. This was done in order to preserve the work for quick turnarounds or night shoots. Shaunna and David loved the way she looked, and a few times, Michelle even wore her punk wig home in order to show off her character’s full appearance.
Michelle and David developed a strong friendship. On the frequent week nights when Shaunna returned home, they played cards, watched movies, and practiced their western accents. David had a pleasant drawl he’d developed for his TV character, and one of the other roles Michelle secured was in an animated film about the Old West. Sometimes whole nights in the Malibu home would sound like an episode of Gunsmoke.
Michelle had wrapped all of her work on Sling Shot, but David still had a final sequence to complete. It was the climatic fight scene with Kyle, and it was the first time the two actors would be face to face since their altercation in Malibu. In the eight weeks since Shaunna realized that Kyle was in possession of intimate footage of the couple’s first sexual encounter, the couple had been trying to brace themselves for the inevitable.
Although many despicable rumors about Michelle had surfaced, no tape had been leaked. As more time went by, Shaunna’s anxiety bloomed. David hated seeing her in distress and did his best to comfort her, knowing that only resolution would bring her peace of mind. David had no illusions about convincing Kyle to do the right thing and, frankly, didn’t want to tip him off in case Kyle hadn’t yet discovered the footage. David was determined to maintain his professional dignity when he reported to the set.
Kyle arrived that morning in a foul mood. His head hurt like hell because he’d attempted to calm his own nerves the night before with drink. Since his squabble with David, the tabloids enjoyed portraying Kyle as the chump who got bested by Michelle’s new lover. News of the restraining order against him did nothing to make him look like the tough guy he had hoped. This made his eyes quiver in his head whenever he thought about it, and he anxiously awaited filming the fatal confrontation between the captain and the pilot. Kyle didn’t want his stuntman to have the privilege of choking David.
“Okay, gentlemen.” Nathan cautiously greeted his two actors as they were getting their makeup done. David and Kyle were trapped, sitting side by side in dressing room chairs and stuck listening to the makeup artist’s favorite country station. “We’re going to do all the conversation today and all the action stuff tomorrow.”
The director looked from one actor to the other. “I assume you guys have been working with Jonathan on the fight sequence?”
David was the first to respond. “He said since it’s mostly wrestling in a closed space, he’s just going to pose us from shot to shot and have us just bang around.”
Nathan nodded his head thoughtfully. “That’s fine. I’m doing this in jump cuts anyway, so the action can be pretty loose. It’s gonna go quickly once it gets physical, so I need all your anger up front in your dialogue. Can you give it to me?”
“Yes,” Kyle answered loudly.
David merely nodded.
Twenty minutes later, the two men were shouting at each other on camera. The tension between them was palpable and usable. Nathan didn’t interfere much for the first couple of takes. Eventually, he asked David to open his eyes more and told Kyle that he was looking for something a bit more sinister. What he got from Kyle was merely an angrier performance, not exactly what he was hoping for, but at least it was consistent. Kyle was also doing something with his lip that Nathan found fascinating. David seemed to be naturally repulsed by his commanding officer, and they finished filming an hour early.
Kyle’s injured hand still bothered him at times, but the next day when he was instructed to choke David, all the pain seemed to disappear.
“I could squeeze your neck all day,” Kyle whispered to David after the second take.
“Don’t make me start squeezing things of yours, Kyle,” Nathan growled from right behind them. He took both men completely by surprise. “You slip, I slip. Remember?”
David could have sworn that he actually felt Kyle’s hands grow cold before they loosened from his throat.
Nathan walked away and joined the discussion his director of photography was having with the camera operator. Both Nathan and his DP put a tremendous amount of trust in the camera operators because they were actually the ones framing each shot. At the moment, they were considering a higher camera angle.
“What was that all about?” David asked Kyle.
“Nothing.” Kyle sounded wounded already. “I hope you’re getting the last few good miles out of my wife.”
David tried very hard not to show his surprise. This was clear proof that Kyle knew nothing about his relationship with Shaunna. He couldn’t wait to tell her.
“You poor imbecile,” David said with hardly a trace of pity in his voice. “You threw away that woman thinking that you’d gotten the best of her, but all you got was the first of her. There’s a big difference.”
Kyle scoffed.
“Michelle is a dragon,” David co
ntinued, “awakening from a bad dream. And she’s going to burn you to ashes.”
Kyle stepped toward David and leaned in close, their noses almost touching. “Fuck you.”
David held his ground and smiled almost like an animal bearing his teeth.
The two men remained standing, eye to eye, their fists clenched at their sides.
“Let’s set up for another take,” Nathan called over in a deliberately casual voice.
Kyle sneered and took his mark, while David waited a moment longer before turning to his starting position.
With each new setup, the shoves became harder and the holds became tighter. The two actors were trapped between the rails of a catwalk and threw each other against the metal with increasing vigor. Once, when David’s head was bent back over the green mats below them, Kyle put his thumb on his Adam’s apple and savagely pressed down.
David responded with a quick, reflexive jab to Kyle’s ribcage. The exchange was the final straw for both men, and suddenly, they were down on the walkway and fighting for real. Furious punches were thrown, and before Nathan could yell out the word “cut,” Kyle was flipped on his back and defending raining blows to his face. David’s patience had reached its breaking point, and his resentment of Kyle Petersen quickly consumed him.
“Stop it!” Nathan roared.
David instantly bounded up and stood over Kyle. He stepped back, but kept his infuriated eyes on the stirring man.
“Get up, Kyle,” Nathan demanded, not offering his hand to the actor struggling to rise. “You’re too beat up to be on film. Go home. You’re wrapped. We’ll have Deuce finish up for you.”
Kyle was almost as livid as he was embarrassed. He shoved his way roughly past both David and Nathan, but kept his eyes on his feet all the way out of the soundstage.
As soon as Kyle stormed off the set, Nathan regarded David, more than ready to return to business. “The last thing we need is the shot of the captain pushing you into the plasma shield. We’re going to use Kyle’s stunt double and film over his shoulder. It should be fine.”
“Okay.” David kept his words to a minimum and concentrated on bringing his rage under control.
“He’ll push you over the rail, into the mats a few times, and then you’ll be wrapped too.”
“Sounds great.” David was now eager to finish the scene and call Shaunna.
Nathan completed his picture’s principal photography later that day and had all the ADR dialogue in the can the week after that.
Chapter Thirty
KYLE WAS FURIOUS at having been so unceremoniously dismissed from the set of Sling Shot. It was a jolting departure on the movie’s wrap. He was accustomed to more merriment when he finished filming. Traditionally, it was a day that was filled with hugs and handshakes and promises to stay in touch. He never bought into anyone’s false promises, of course. Nevertheless, Kyle always looked forward to the extra attention, as he was frequently the biggest celebrity in the room.
Some directors had customs and speeches and made a big deal out of the last day on a set. Kyle didn’t like any of that blather, yet the sense of loss at having been shooed away was as heavy as a boulder on his back.
Naturally, he took out his aggression on Heather, blaming her for everything, from the font size in People magazine, to the sunglasses he broke on the drive home. She dutifully endured his wrath while she labored on with his enormous press responsibilities. In her experience, big stars who underwent a fall from grace were in many ways more popular than ever, but the tone of the contact she’d had with outlets from around the world was combative. She was met with frequent snide accusations from online reporters and open mockery from radio programming directors. Everyone wanted to talk to him, but suddenly, nobody wanted to play by his rules. That, too, became Heather’s fault.
“Please let me get something for your eye,” she finally said after he wandered past her for the third time in as many minutes, attempting to poke holes in her self-confidence.
The genuine concern in her voice made him stop. “Go ahead,” he said sternly and sat down in her chair when she got up. He glanced at her laptop, but resisted opening it. He didn’t really like computers. He could never find the cursor, and nothing ever seemed to work for him, so he mainly kept to e-mails. When he was still living with Michelle, he would also occasionally monitor the home security system at the Malibu beach house.
Kyle straightened quickly, his eyes as wide as his mouth as a realization dawned on him. His time in Houston, along with the distraction of his divorce, had gotten him out of the habit of logging into the online system to review and purge the old surveillance data.
Before their separation, while he’d been sneaking his most prized belongings from the house, Kyle remembered thinking of the time when he could be in his new home and watch his ex-wife undress in hers. The idea had excited Kyle, and now he couldn’t believe that he hadn’t taken full advantage of his access yet. He nearly began bouncing with excitement in his chair. After such a shitty day, he finally had something to look forward to in the evening.
Heather returned to the room, carrying crushed ice in a cloth kitchen towel. Even though he impatiently moved to take it from her, she stepped forward and placed it gently over the whole left side of his swelling face. It was a kind act, like something a mother would do, and he almost felt sorry for yelling at her.
“Go lie down for a while,” Heather suggested softly. “I can call your agency and see where they are in finding you a new manager. You don’t need to spend your whole afternoon on hold.”
Kyle was happy for an excuse to leave without coming up with one of his own and rose from the chair without another word. Passing by his bedroom, he went to his office. The towel he still held to his face was cold, but not uncomfortably so, and actually very soft. He wondered briefly if Heather was starting to fall for him as he opened his laptop and waited for it to respond.
As he logged into his computer and clicked on his security system’s icon, he wished he’d installed a camera in the bathroom so he could watch Michelle take a bath. She took two a day sometimes, something he hated about her when they were together, but would’ve loved to take advantage of now. He smirked at the possibility of seeing Shaunna naked as well. It was something he’d often fantasized about and even attempted over the years to subtly engineer.
“What the fuck?” Kyle’s security dashboard pulled up all four camera feeds, all of them totally dark. He had anticipated the usual quartet of angles of his estate, but the black denial was enough to make him almost re-injure his hand as he slammed it down on his desk.
Kyle’s membership bought him a terabyte of storage space on the web site, which he hadn’t come close to using. Even if that were the case, though, the screens should have been providing him with a live feed.
He began scrolling backward in time. First hours, then days, then weeks flew by with nothing to show for it.
“Are you kidding me!” He’d gone back months, and all four feeds were still blank. He mourned all the lost footage of his wife, who he’d so easily insulted, but now craved.
It took a while, but eventually, one stream sprang to life. It showed a bespectacled gentleman peering closely at the camera before walking away backward. One by one, he saw the same man’s face as he discovered and disconnected the cameras in reverse order. According to the time stamp, the cameras had been deactivated within a few days after the group’s return from Texas.
Kyle knew that one of the last events recorded by the cameras was likely to have been his other fight with David Quinn. That was absolutely the last thing he wanted to see. He slammed down his laptop screen and yelled in rage.
“Are you okay?” Heather followed her voice into the room, but the menace in Kyle’s eyes sent her right back out like a slap in the face. She backed out in a move that reminded Kyle of the unknown man who had disabled his eyes into the house.
All he could think about was how Michelle now had two guys running around the Malibu
estate with her.
As he continued to fume, Kyle also concluded that Michelle’s delay in producing a restraining order had to be deliberate, which made him believe that Shaunna was behind the shady timing. They thought they had him, but he was still determined to come out of the divorce on top.
He told himself that whatever happened, they’d started it.
And he was going to fight fire with gasoline.
Chapter Thirty-One
ALL NATHAN HAD TO DO was spend the next two months cutting the film and filling in all the green spaces. He and his editor, Lauren, had a rough cut ready by Valentine’s Day and sent it to the studio that morning. Nathan was extremely surprised to get a phone call before the end of the afternoon.
“This is gonna be Titanic in space!” was the exact quote, and Nathan had never been so happy to be on a conference call with a half-dozen suits.
Until they crashed him into the iceberg.
“We’re taking a different direction with promotion.” This was the president of the studio talking. Nathan couldn’t remember his name, but his voice was unmistakable, and it was certainly a big deal that he was even in the room. “We want a summer blockbuster, but we want a red carpet movie even more. Your picture is just as gritty and tech-heavy as you advertised, but it’s turning out to be unexpectedly sweet and human and dramatic all at once.”
“Thank you,” Nathan responded with guarded gratitude. He knew they weren’t done yet.
“Also,” the president continued, “we have the added wrinkle of your two lead actors and their impending divorce. I supposed you’ve heard that Michelle Cooper filed a restraining order against Kyle Petersen?”
“Yes, I heard,” Nathan acknowledged.
“That means they won’t be able to do any press together, and that requires us to re-think how they will be promoting your movie.”
“Naturally,” Nathan agreed.
“So, we’re going to push your release date to the fall…” There was a sound of shuffling papers over the line that synchronized with Nathan’s speeding heartbeat. “November sixth, to be exact. This will give you more time to complete your special effects, and I’m sure that can only please you, but…we’re going to need to see only PG-thirteen cuts of the picture from now on.”